Bittman is right

From the AP, courtesy of ABCNews:

CHICAGO May 2 —

...The proportion of respondents who said a supermarket was their primary food store fell by 5 percentage points since a year earlier, to 72 percent. The share of shoppers who considered a discount store their first choice rose by 4 percentage points, to 21 percent....

More shoppers said they were comparison shopping, looking in newspapers for sales,using coupons and rebates, stocking up on bargains even if they don't need the items right away, and buying only what was on their grocery lists. More shoppers also were keeping grocery lists, the survey found.

For all that work, however, the average grocery bills that the survey respondents reported showed little change. The average weekly bill fell $1, to $90, from January of 2003.

Working against the desire to save money was the desire to save time, something else that modern America has all too little of. The survey showed an increase in purchases of precooked foods, which cost more than the ingredients for from-scratch meals.

Silly Americans. Clipping coupons, shopping at Grocery Outlet (which is what I assume the article means by "discount stores," which otherwise goes undefined), but buying more pre-made meals, and hence losing the potential savings to Michelina's and Healthy Choice. Never mind that the article makes no mention of the obvious "duh" point: that if all costs are rising, even if Americans get smart and clip coupons, their bills won't go down considerably. Prepackaging isn't entirely to blame.

This book shows the way to culinary--and fiscal--salvation.